BUNGLING burglar Paul Taylor left the perfect clue for police at the scene of a house he had broken into – a set of footprints in fresh snow.

BUNGLING burglar Paul Taylor left the perfect clue for police at the scene of a house he had broken into – a set of footprints in fresh snow.

Clued-up cops traced the hapless crook’s trail for TWO MILES across a housing estate, wasteland, car park, canal and a towpath.

And at the end of the footprints they discovered drug addict Taylor, 26, hiding in a car – with a swag bag full of jewellery and cash.

The break-in took place during the winter snap that battered the Midlands in February and has now left the dim-witted Black Country behind bars.

Meanwhile, arresting officers Sergeant Jamie Checkland and PC Paul Harobin have been praised for their display of good old-fashioned detective work.

Details of the burglary emerged after members of West Midlands Police Authority were briefed by Chief Constable Sir Paul Scott-Lee

In a document he said: “It was the night of heavy snowfall and when officers arrived at the scene the offender had run away leaving footprints in the snow.

“Officers followed the footprints for two hours over fields, pathways and through estates, until the trail ended at an address some two miles away from the attacked premises.”

In hindsight, the freezing February day was probably not the best time to go out burgling.

Police were called to the burglary in Bilston Lane, Willenhall, in the early hours of February 6 after a thief had broken in through a window and swiped £100 of jewellery and cash.

As Sgt Checkland and PC Harobin scoured the area they found a set of “distinctive footprints” in the fresh snow and were soon hot on the heels of the culprit.

The mystery prints went along Cadman Close, crossed a garden and ended at a fence. The officers found they continued on the other side and followed them as they snaked through Appleforth Drive, across wasteland near an electricity sub-station and past Autoworld into Armstrong Way.

Braving the cold, the officers continued to follow the prints across the car park of neighbouring Staples, beneath the Black Country Route and onto a canal towpath. They later emerged in Lowe Avenue and continued along Kennedy Crescent and into Hall Street East where they abruptly ended at the foot of a driveway. After almost two hours trekking through the snow the officers found Taylor hiding inside a Vauxhall Zafira, parked on the driveway of the home of his ex-girlfriend.

Taylor, of Hart Road, Wednesfield, appeared before Walsall Magistrates the following day and was later sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court to 30 months jail after pleading guilty to burglary.

Sgt Kelvin Rowlands, from Walsall police station, said: “This was traditional police work at its best and a fantastic piece of detective work by the two officers.”

And another officer joked: “In the traditions of the Canadian Mounties, we always get our man.”